“Deep Purple” went #1 on the pop chart in November, 1963 sung by Nino Tempo & April Stevens. Then it went #14 in March 1976 by Donnie & Marie Osmond.
The song was published in 1933.
Lest we forget… “Tip Toe Through the Tulips with Me”, performed by Nick Lukas in the 1929 film “Gold Diggers of Broadway”, was a #17 hit for Tiny Tim in 1968.
“Tom Dooley”, a chart-topper for the Kingston Trio in 1958, was a traditional song about an 1866 murder; it was first recorded in 1929 (but had presumably been around for awhile at that point).
(Admittedly these are “pop” rather than “rock”)
Harper’s Bizarre had a minor hit with “Chattanooga Choo Choo” from 1941 in the 60s.
Sort of. Cream recorded it under the title “Crossroads.”
The '20s were pretty fruitful; in addition to *Mack the Knife *and Tiptoe Through the Tulips, already mentioned,
Freddy “Boom-Boom” Cannon hit #3 on the Billboard chart in early 1960 with Way Down Yonder in New Orleans, published in 1922.
Lonnie Donegan had a #5 hit in 1958 with his skiffle version of the novelty *Does Your Chewing Gum Lose It’s *[sic] Flavor (On the Bedpost Over Night), first recorded in 1924. (The American version was Does the Spearmint . . .; it was changed because of British broadcasting law.)
*See See Rider *(which has various spellings) is pretty much a traditional blues song, but Ma Rainey copyrighted it in 1924; it has a well-documented use:
Blue Moon–from Rodgers and Hart
Just thought of another - Cannon’s Jug Stompers recorded Walk Right In in 1929, and The Rooftop Singers had a hit with it in 1963.
Already mentioned at the beginning of this thread was Beethoven’s 9th Symphony.
Miguel Rios had a hit with “Song Of Joy” in 1970.
Which does not disqualify it. Heard a version collected by John Lomax that was insanely rocking, but was just a single singer. If anybody knows it that would save this sinner a lot more fruitless searching. 
Knock yerself out. The OP was intended as a guideline, not a rule.
A question regarding Johnson’s actual talent obviously should reside in another thread. Kid was good, but… 
Muse’s Matt Bellamy loves to lift from the classics.
From Rachmaninoff:
“Butterflies & Hurricanes” has a piano cadenza which is Matt’s adaptation of Rachmaninoff’s Prelude in G. “Space Dementia” cribs its melody in the chorus from Rach’s Piano Conc. No. 2 in Cm. Other songs referencing Rachmaninoff are “Ruled By Secrecy” and “Megalomania,” in which Matt plays a pipe organ. In concert, he’s also been known to use bits of Rachmaninoff as intros and outros for other songs (“Hoodoo,” “Screenager”). Some Musers have spotted Rach-ish stylistic influences in “Endlessly” and “Apocalypse Please,” but that isn’t necessarily quoting or borrowing outright.
One Muse fan had this observation about the various versions of “Screenager” and their respective classical influences:
“Weird, there seems to be quite a bit of variation between each version of Screenager. The video you linked to (2002 French tour) has an introduction of Rach’s Prelude Op 23 #5. The Origin of Symmetry recording begins with a guitar rhythm that I assume is original. The recording on the second CD of Hullabaloo Soundtrack begins with Rach’s Prelude in C-Sharp Minor Op 3 #2, but only for the first 28 seconds; after that, he changes to what That Little Animal pointed out was Chopin’s Revolutionary Etude. It’s almost as if Bellamy is playing Screenager with a “Choose Your Own Rachmaninoff Adventure” book. I love it.”
For now at least, I’ll just have to take his word for it.
This comparative essay will probably stand as the definitive word on Muse’s use of Rachmaninoff (includes sound clips and exerpts of sheet music). The author is careful to emphasize how the similarities are often very limited, with only a certain aspect – say, the bassline harmonies – being transposed, slowed down by half, and totally recontextualized to a new effect.
From other composers:
“Soldier’s Poem” quotes Schubert’s Ave Maria (the “no, I don’t think there is…” bit).
The intro to “Unintended” which Matt played at Wembley (on the HAARP DVD) is taken from the Simple Etude #6 for Guitar by the contemporary Cuban composer Leo Brouwer, but I think Matt adapted it slightly even so.
“The United States of Eurasia (+ Collateral Damage)” is bookended with Chopin.
“Interlude” is supposedly patterned on Adagio for Strings.
“Hoodoo” is strongly indebted to a Tchaikovsky piano concerto (dunno which one), but the chord progressions are said to be transposed to variously minor, diminished, and major keys, so it’s hardly a wholesale ripoff.
Supposedly, “Blackout” is (patterned on? loosely influenced by?) Schubert, but I don’t have any details.
Some Muse fans see a similarity between the harmonic circle of fifths chord progression in “New Born” and those used by some Baroque composers, like Bach. (This one’s a bit beyond my ken to judge, though. Anyway, using similar – even identical – chord progressions isn’t necessarily copying.)
Likewise, there’s said to be a similarity in the chord progressions from Bach’s Tocatta and Fugue in Dm and “Plug In Baby” – but again, the influence is fairly diffuse.
And I personally think that “Take a Bow” is very Philip Glass-esque in the bassline/synth figures, without necessarily ripping off any particular piece of his. (I’d have to revisit the Glass recordings in my collection to even begin to nail this one down.)
He’s So Unusual, which Cindi Lauper recorded in 1984, was originally recorded by Helen Kane in 1929.
Okay, this is the most fun (for me) thread I’ve opened in in ages. 
A depressing (fun?) thing about “John Barleycorn Must Die” is that I get most of the agricultural terms in it. Had to check with Wife regarding the taxation details, but I have some idea of how to grow barley in saline soil.
“Istanbul (Not Constantinople)”, done by The Might Be Giants, was written in 1929 by Irving Berlin.
Are you sure? According to Lissauer’s Encyclopedia of Popular Music in America: 1888 To the Present it was written by Jimmy Kennedy and Nat Simon in 1953. Ascap.com’s search function confirms this.
:smack: